Hello, I am writing this after the loss of a pet that I loved more then I thought I possibly could in such a small animal species. Hopefully this thread will save some lives, and help me be forgiven for what I feel I ignored as somewhat obvious signs in my Flower.
I own three guinea pigs, two American short hair, Flower, and Applejack, and one long haired(silky I believe?) named Rarity, Flower is black and white, very inquisitive, energetic, and kind of the matriarch, or leader of the three, Applejack and Rarity are more shy, mild demeanored. What I'm about to say is important to me, and should be to other owners, and I want people to be aware of this so that in memory of my Flower maybe some good can come from our loss, and her short life being taken, maybe we can save some special lives.

Six months ago, Flower began urinating blood, being a good concerned owner I researched online, called vet clinics and made an appointment, we discovered Flower had a bladder stone after conducting an ultrasound and an X-Ray, Flower had surgery on April 6th 2016, the vet did not suggest antibiotics post surgery, I gave her 10 days worth regardless. Afterwards I researched on diets, calcium and phosphoric ratios. While Flower and the other had their diets changed I still topped KMS pellets with some of her favorite food.

Unfortunately off and on Flower had blood in her urine, about one month ago as I was petting her I felt a lump on her right side, right infront of her back hip, in that soft abdominal area. I dont know why, but after I felt it multiple times, told my wife, and my mother, not the lump or the blood seemed to tell me, "Hey, we should get her checked", and I wrote off the blood in urine as the food id sometimes give as it would clear up during a period of healthy diet.

Here is where the important/sad news comes,
One morning my daughter herd Flower chirp and warned us, Flower is making squeaking noises and acting weird, we went out, found her lying on her side gasping like she was choking, I picked her up, within one minute we were in the car and I'm trying to comfort and pet her staying as calm as I possibly could which wasn't much. My little Flower passed away before we were halfway out the neighborhood.

I was so desperate, I even tried to resuscitate her mouth to mouth, I was very desperate, Ill explain why at the end of this.

In tears, we decided on a necropsy, what took my Flowers life? I researched so much online, I had no clue, no answers. Here is what the necropsy reported, now I understand this was a gross necropsy, and the vet was somewhat vague, but please understand, this is no coincidence this lump I felt, and the blood in her urine, and her abrupt sudden death was surely proof this was most likely an accurate diagnoses, and there is no room for skepticism, when it results in what it did.

A gross necropsy was performed through a ventral midline incision
All was normal exsept the following
6. The right cranial abdomen has a tubular mass that is in the region of the kidney/uterus. Suspect this is retroperitoneal as the kidney cannot be identified.
A: Suspect pyelonephritis with subsequent sepsis.

After a second opinion, it is believed my little angel passed away from a neglected kidney infection, it had enlarged her kidney, and most likely infected her blood, and hit her heart.

For the people on this forum, or like me who come by and read it, note that this lump/bump was in no section or websiye anywhere ive found, I did just today, discover a thread similar, but not enough to educate on it, or warn of the severity of it.

People, if your guinea pig has anything like a bump, in any size, flowers was about the side of a cheerio, maybe slightly smaller, please get them to a vet asap, a guinea pigs anatomy shows this is the area of the kidneys, and this could be an enlarged kidney, maybe even ovary or uteris, but because this shape was tubular, it was indeed her kidney that had enlarged from inflammation due to infection. I will include a photo in this post in an edit shortly showing where her lump was, bare in mind it was not portruding, it was not visible to the eye, but if you lightly pet her, even without palpitation or any pressure, you could feel it.

To end this post, I want to say I have had a rough time in my last two years, I have had major depression and been in the hospital for risk of my own safety, this sweet little animal, was my support animal, holding her and giving her attention made me feel that much better that I could give love to something so sweet, unique, and beautiful. I feel like I failed her, I didnt give her support, I keep asking, if I had treated her a month ago with those antibiotics I had twenty feet away, would she be here, why did I not take her to the vet, she showed me signs, blood in her urine, the lump, she let me feel multiple times, even my family members I mentioned this too, no one suggested it. I called vets asking for that answer, I feel I could have saved her, the whole time I had that medicine right down the hall, but for some reason I didn't treat it as serious as I should've. I have a lot of guilt, I can't find closure, the only thing I do know are these three things, I want to direct this pain into love towards my wife and kids in someway, to give Flowers tragedy a purpose, I want to let others know what happend in her memory, maybe it will save one of your beloved pets, and lastly, I gave that sweet animal so much love and attention even my wife was jealous, I hope she knew how much I loved her in her short life. I will post a picture of my passed on little angel.

This guine pig gave me every bit the support and comfort that I have seen dogs and cats give people.

I hope you are in heaven Flower, running through beautiful sunny grassy meadows with others, I will remember her forever. Thank you all to whom read this. I know it was a lot.

Thank you for the kind words, it helps a lot, I feel like I used to freak out at any minor symptom, but I don't know why I did not respond to her bleeding immediately, or that lump I don't know what was going through my mind, maybe I had seen her bleed so much and with the previous issue I overlooked it, either way, I have much regret, and wonder if I could have saved her. We purchased only two at first, Applejack and Rarity, a couple hours later, my wife said hey, that black one, I just can't get her off my mind, and she had some Christmas money left over, I decided for her, Jumped up and out into the car and flew back to the pet store and there she was still there, got her and brought her home and felt so good to show my wife, surprisingly, I became more attached to her than anyone, and she helped me so much, I am glad the night before that morning I was able to hold her and tell her I loved her, and that when she did pass the next morning, she was in my arms.

Does anyone know how to edit posts? I seen it in the FAQ, but I don't see the edit button anywhere, I want to add a few pictures, two of her, and one indicating the area on a guinea pig that I found her lump.

I ran out of time to edit, I would upload a couple cute pictures of her, but can't figure it out, by the way, I had her surgery inaccurate, it was February 3rd 2016 she had surgery, the April 6th was an appointment for what we were told she may of had GI stasis issues, I kind of wonder if after four months that the issue she had then could have been the start of all this? Doesn't seem likely seeing as an infection would not take over 3 months untreated to do what it did, I'm assuming it happened sometime 4-6 weeks ago.

For anyone who wants to know, and seeing as I can't upload a picture indicating the area the lump was in, if you run your hand along the side of your guinea pig, just to the point of the start of her hip, that soft area on the side there, I guess I would say is her groin/hip area, had the lump right there. There are a few images of guinea pig anatomy that shows the kidneys accurately in that area on the left and right side. I hope that someday this post helps someone.

I'm so sorry you lost Flower. And yes, she is waiting for you at the Rainbow Bridge. Just as you wish, she running around eating lots of grass and popcorning all over the place. You did give her a wonderful life and you can't be faulted for things you didn't know about. Take comfort in that and give the other 2 lots of attention, too. You'll find they are special in their own ways. Sending warm hugs.

I sent InHonorofFlower a picture from this site that he could use to indicate the location of the lump.

He wrote, "Note that this bump did not stick out visibly, but if you had pet her, you would feel it noticeably. So depending how you would write it, given Flowers circumstances she passed without this thing being large enough to visibly see, so its safe to warn that "feeling" the bump alone, is all that is required to consider it serious.

"Two vets said that not just renal failure enlarge kidneys, infection/inflammation do too."